


Petals Around the Rose

by awintersrose



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Multi, Parental Sannin, Polyamory, Science and Family Planning, Toddlers have great timing, giftfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-12 13:39:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16873899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awintersrose/pseuds/awintersrose
Summary: Like the petals of a rose, everything falls according to its order and place.





	Petals Around the Rose

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yaodai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yaodai/gifts).



> My gift to Yaodai for the Orochimaru Server Gift Exchange, in response to a request that included Sannin OT3 and parental Orochimaru. 
> 
> I really hope you enjoy it, Duck! <3 <3
> 
> A huge thank you to Krikee and shipcat for their beta assistance and general support! (Kitty came up with the title XD)

“We’re going to have a baby.” Orochimaru says in full confidence, with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

His partners just stare at him from across the table, slackjawed for a moment. Neither should be surprised, not with the amount of time he’s been spending in the lab, but both assumed it was for, well, work. Jiraiya is the first to speak, though he cannot seem to keep the incredulity from seeping into his voice.

“You got yourself pregnant, didn’t you?”

There is a measured pause as Orochimaru smiles enigmatically, enjoying their awestruck expressions. “It’s funny that you think so...but no.”

“Then what do you mean?” Tsunade asks, eyeing him carefully. They’ve been trying for the last year to get pregnant, to no avail. Just false hopes that have died at the end of every month despite their best efforts to time their intimacies along with her cycle.

“All in due time, Hime. Just know I’ve made a way for our dreams to take flight. I’m very good at what I do.” He grins, fangs glinting in the candlelight.

His partners are slightly terrified.

That is, they are until he leads them down to his lab after dinner, where he quickly pulls up images on his computer and turns on lights in the dim recesses of the corners where his cryostorage units are contained. At first, the specimens don’t look like much. Small petri dishes in a misty frozen container. Even magnified, images of the tiny collections of divided cells on the screens that Orochimaru clicks through don’t seem to compute until Tsunade’s eyes catch sight of the most recent images. Two fully formed identical embryos appear before her on the screen plain as day.

“What you see here, my darling loves, are our babies. Ours. Living progeny created from the three of us together via a form of genetic manipulation I’ve spent the last two years trying to perfect. Since nature was unwilling to assist us, I felt driven to take matters into my own hands. All it will take is an attempt at in-vitro fertilization within a willing body, and yes if I wished it, that body could be my own. However with the existence of the most perfect womb in all of creation readily available, it would be foolish not to make our wife the mother she wants to be. And so I ask - Tsunade, will you bear our children?”

The look on her face is rather inscrutable, and at first Orochimaru is not quite sure what to make of it. Then he smells the salt on the air and hurries to her side.

“Don’t cry, Hime, it doesn’t have to be right away…we can easily wait a few months.”

“I want it, baka. I want them.” she says softly, scrubbing away the tears that she can’t quite contain. “But are you sure it will work? What if we lose them?”

“Nothing is one hundred percent certain, but if we time it right, the chances are very, very good.”

“And they’re really  _ ours _ ? All three of us?” 

“Yes. Now I could give you even more complete details of the entire genome, but that would ruin the surprise of it, for all of us.” Their eyes meet and she hugs him tight, and in perfect time Jiraiya’s arms engulf them both in comfort and protection, sharing the moment of absolute joy.

 

And thus the decision is made, and a procedure planned. One month later, Tsunade is successfully carrying twins that hold the blood of all three of Konoha’s last living legends.

 

* * *

  
  


Expecting their twins, Tsunade might as well be some embodiment of an earth goddess, though initially she doesn’t quite feel as excited about the physical changes as Orochimaru and Jiraiya do. Morning sickness is a buzzkill to any good day, and her favorite clothes no longer fit. But the round swell of her belly and the first moments of quickening within her remind her that their little ones are coming, they are real and all their efforts have been worthwhile.

Late summer brings with it the meticulously calculated due date at which the Sannin expect to meet their children. Tsunade insists on remaining surprised at as many aspects of their physical qualities as possible barring any abnormalities or causes for concern, and so Orochimaru has taken great pains to ensure that these attributes are left to chance, apart from ensuring that certain traits are held - Tsunade’s chakra stores and strength, Jiraiya’s stamina, and of course his own healing factor and sensory skills.

Yet true to their heritage, their babies decide to make an entrance when they want to, and definitely not according to plan. The Sannin are in the middle of a banquet with the council and dignitaries from Sunagakure when Tsunade’s water breaks; a full two weeks prior to the expected due date. It is a mad dash to get her home, and an even hastier one to seek out her student, their chosen midwife. Only Kato Shizune is nowhere to be found, out of the village on a last minute mission, expected to be back the following day under the assurance that she would be home with plenty of time to spare before Tsunade’s due date.

“The hospital can send another medic, it’ll be fine.” Jiraiya says.

“I don’t want another medic.” Tsunade gasps, one hand on her belly, as another contraction holds her in its grip. Her eyes fill with frustrated, hormonal tears. “I want my grandmother or Shizune. No one else.”

“I can do it, Hime.” Orochimaru offers. “You know I am every bit as trained as every jounin medic in the hospital, possibly moreso, I just don’t practice it the way you do.”

She looks at him dubiously, even as Jiraiya rubs her lower back reassuringly. Tsunade has never missed her grandmother more than she does now. They had planned out every detail of the birth - that which she could control, at least - and so far every hope of this going according to said plan has been dashed to smithereens.

In the end it is Orochimaru whose hands bring their little ones into the world after a night that none of the three will ever forget. The ebb and flow of labor runs its course much faster than they might have imagined even though Tsunade curses both their names innumerable times, and the bones of Jiraiya’s left hand are crushed in multiple places. Within two hours from the time they arrive home from the banquet, Orochimaru is cutting the umbilical cords and examining the babies from top to toe.

To any medic, the sight would be mundane, but to him, they are a marvel. Identical male neonates, hale and perfectly healthy, though the second born seems to weigh several ounces more than the first. Both bear strong lungs with the way they cry, and downy tufts of pale hair crown their tiny heads. He peers down at them, quickly realizing that his are the very first eyes to ever gaze into those of their children, whose irises glimmer pure gold, with none of the murky blue-grey of average newborns. Those golden eyes seem to bear a keen knowledge of something beyond the comprehension of men, and for a moment he is rendered breathless, but he shakes it off, holding onto the excitement that comes with the discovery of their sharing his eye color.

They truly bear something of his, of his clan, and it is more than enough to render him satisfied for the moment. His blood lives on, and his chest is filled with warmth and an unrivaled sense of rightness as he wraps their newborn babies in matching receiving blankets, snug and secure. Then he places the tiny boys in Tsunade’s arms, and meets her tearful gaze and Jiraiya’s. When dazzling smiles illuminate their faces with joy, Orochimaru is certain he has never known love like this before.  
  


 

* * *

  
  


Life as the parents of twin sons leaves things irrevocably altered, but apart from the first few sleepless months, time passes by like a whirlwind. There are benefits to having three parents instead of two, as well as apprentices more than willing to help once in a while. Milestones come and go all too quickly. Teething, first words, first steps. Their baby boys are a marvel unlike anything Orochimaru has ever experienced in the totality of his years on this planet. Nothing is more peaceful than feeding their babies or more delightful than hearing them laugh. Every time it is as if nothing has ever been quite so hilarious as ever before, but somehow it is.

Even more curious is the ever present urge to cuddle, to squeeze, the feeling that overcomes him at the sight of toothless grins so adorable… Orochimaru finally understands what his mother meant when she said he was once so cute she could just “eat him up.” It was always so confusing before.

There are moments where he feels a kinship with his own parents, although they’ve been gone for decades; it is as if some secret knowledge has been passed on, some sort of esoteric tenets of learning, of emotions shared only by those who know what it is to care for and know the love of little ones. Sometimes he wonders what might have become of him if he’d ever missed out on unraveling such mysteries.  
  


 

* * *

 

 

Rogu and Mitsuki are tucked into bed and completely asleep by nine o’clock for the first time in forever and for a little while, the Sannin are not quite sure what to do with themselves. The house is eerily quiet; Jiraiya places a bookmark in the novel he’s reading, and very pointedly places one hand on Tsunade’s thigh, and pulls Orochimaru just a bit closer to his side with the other.

“The boys are sleeping soundly in their room. Do you think perhaps we might go to ours? And before you get any ideas, don’t either of you even think about sleeping.” he says in a low, cajoling tone.

“Daring of you, Raiya. Challenge accepted.” Orochimaru whispers with a sly look in his golden eyes, and Tsunade cannot help but laugh, elbowing him lightly, nonetheless hurrying towards the bedroom as quietly as possible. 

Ten minutes later, the trio have enabled seals to soundproof the room and secure the door, and they lose themselves in each other, clothes littering the floor in a careless trail towards the bed. Orochimaru closes his eyes as his mates trail kisses over sensitive skin, Jiraiya, warm as spring sunshine at his back, and Tsunade, sweet and yielding in his arms. 

All is as it should be, and everything is in its rightful place.

“Amaaa…” a pitiful voice suddenly whines on the opposite side of the heavy wooden door. There is a scuffling noise, then a shaking of the doorknob. 

“Mama-papa-aru??” Another more certain voice says, and small hands pat the doorframe, as the seals come alive. One of the boys, likely Rogu, is somehow sensing the seals without knowing it. Only to be expected of their children, after all. Sensei has made jokes about the second coming of Senju Tobirama. Sometimes they don’t seem so much like jokes.

Orochimaru is up and out of the bed in an instant, tugging on his yukata as quickly as possible, tossing his mates the pieces of their discarded pajamas as he opens the door to find a tearful Mitsuki flanked by a stern Rogu. Two pairs of golden eyes look up at their parent with little arms raised in a silent bid to be held, and Orochimaru scoops up his little ones, eager to comfort, to protect them from whatever phantom, real or imagined, might have disturbed their sleep.

“What is the matter my loves?’ he asks softly, carrying them towards the bed, bouncing them  lightly, rocking to and fro.

“Mii-chan crying.” Rogu says, snuggling into the curve of Orochimaru’s shoulder.

Mitsuki is still sniffling. “Dream iss big scare.” he manages, and Orochimaru hands him off to Tsunade, who cuddles him close and rubs his back until the tears begin to slow. 

Their youngest has always had a particular bond with his mother, and will fall asleep easily with her nearby. Rogu on the other hand, fits his thumb in his mouth, the one habit they’ve not quite broken from babyhood, and laces the fingers of one hand into Orochimaru’s hair. He’ll sleep at his own pace, fighting every step of the way no matter how tired he may be. Jiraiya always finds this comical, especially when reminiscing upon the days before their children, when it took threats of bodily harm to get Orochimaru to leave his lab and sleep.

With his small son cradled close to his chest, Orochimaru finds his way back to his usual spot on the bed beside Tsunade, with Jiraiya’s comforting warmth closing in the circuit before he pulls the thick coverlet up over all of them. Sensual joys all but forgotten, they are replaced by something softer as Tsunade runs her fingers through fluffy white hair and strokes her sleeping baby’s cheek. Orochimaru listens to the soft breath of his little one evening out into full slumber, and Jiraiya holds vigil over all of them, his to protect. 

Their bed is overfull, but even so, all is truly as it should be. And everything is in its rightful place.

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for reading - I do hope you enjoyed it! If you did, please do let me know your thoughts via kudos or a comment if you can. Your input really keeps me going!
> 
> Follow me on Tumblr: [awintersrose.tumblr.com](http://awintersrose.tumblr.com)


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